QUADRILLE WITH A RAVEN

Humphrey started writing his memoirs 1976 when in California. He was Composer
in Residence at USC in L.A. from 76-77. He had very little time to work on
them after his return to London in '77 and not much interest in writing about
himself. He finally finished them just before his death in 1982.

MEMOIRS OF A COMPOSER

There was an old man of Whitehaven
Who danced a quadrille with a raven.
They said "It's absurd
To encourage that bird",
So they smashed that old man of Whitehaven Edward
Lear

"Humphrey Searle was the greatest encourager and animator of other people's
lives and talents I have ever known. He was so modest that he forgot to promote
his own great talents".
Malcolm
ArnoldCONTENTS

5. LONDON AND VIENNA
A room in Bayswater - Walton's suggestion: to study with
John Ireland - meeting Webern - Nazis' hostility to
Schoenberg

6. FIVE HUNDRED COPIES OF MESSIAH
Back in England - teaching -post of chorus librarian
- a room off Portland Place - meetings with Constant Lambert and
Edith Sitwell - letter from Webern - Bloom's request to write on Liszt

7. MARSHFIELD
Outbreak of war - letter from James Joyce - collaboration
on scores for two films - meeting John Davenport - the
Army

12. BREAKTHROUGH
David Gascoygne and Night Thoughts - a ballet
(Noctambules) and its production - Gascoygne and A Celebration of
Festivals - with Lesley to the Prague Spring Festival
- meetings with Petri, Stravinsky and Henze - Lesley's death

13. INTERLUDE
Introduced to actor Patrick Wymark - in preparation:
The Diary of a Madman - ballet score expanded into "the life of
the great peacock moth" - Venice and Greece

18. AMERICA AGAIN
The American bicentenary - Anne Bradstreet
- prospect of lecturing
in America - introductory talk for The Photo of
the Colonel

19. FAUSTUS AND THE ORESTEIA
The background of Faustus - death of brother -
Cyprus again -
prospect of writing music for the Oresteia - Thamesis
- commissions
- anniversaries to be celebrated musically
- other work looming